


Hang On (even birds fall before they learn to fly)

by fantasycloud



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Arrow Family, Character Death, Emotional Baggage, Family, Fluff, Happy Ending, Humor, LGBTQ Themes, Love, Multi, Panic Attacks, Pride, Sarcasm, Slow Burn, Smut, Sports, a lot of characters I know, but it'll be worth it, friends - Freeform, sara's still a badass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-22 21:12:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15590817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasycloud/pseuds/fantasycloud
Summary: Sara Lance's world is thrown upside down one night when a stupid accident occurs and takes her entire family away from her. Since she's only sixteen, she's placed in the foster system and has been bumped around from family to family over the past year. But when Rip Hunter brings her to the Sharpe's, things finally start to change and Sara even dares to hope that she's beginning to see the end of the neverending tunnel she's been living in.But will it last? When she first meets Ava Sharpe, one of the daughters of the family that has taken her in, she wants to punch her in the face. Later, it's not punching she's fantasizing about...Will her mixed feelings for Ava destroy her chances of finally having a family again, or is it worth risking everything over them? And when her father is released from prison, will her world crumble yet again?





	1. The Sharpe's

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! I see that you have clicked your way to my simple story, welcome! I'm very grateful, by the way, so let me begin by saying thank you. Now, this story is about a girl, lost in the foster system after losing her family. It has sort of a 'The Foster' feeling to it, but I assure you that it is nothing like it other than the 'falling for your foster sibling' thing... Whoops, did I spoil something? 
> 
> Anyways, I want to warn you about one thing though, and that is that my grammar may not always be correct, English is not my native language, but please be patient with me, I am trying my very best :) I don't have an uploading schedule, I upload when I write, and I have a full-time job so... I'll do my best? That's the best I can promise you.
> 
> Well, enough of my babble. I hope that you will enjoy this ride with me, and feel free to comment any thoughts/ideas/critisiscm/(well, anything), that you have, everything is welcome! And again, thank you for being here, it means a lot to me. xo - fantasycloud

Sara was tired. After being shouted at, driven and left stranded at the local police station by her sixth foster family alone, she was just tired. She asked one of the confused officers kindly to call her social worker and sat down heavily on one of the hard plastic chairs with her backpack already dropped on the one next to it. While the officer hurried off to call Rip she leaned her head against the wall behind her. This wasn’t the first time she had been dumped by a family, but it was the first time she had been dumped so quickly and so aggressively by one. She wouldn’t lie, it had stung a bit. She really had tried this time. And the one before that, and the one before that. But now she was tired. Tired of being bumped around, tossed to the side like trash. 

Why didn’t anyone want her?

Sure, she was a bit of a pain in the ass. But what did they expect, that she would just be a perfect little angel with no baggage? Had they even read her file? She sighed. Why was she the one that always had to try? She would do anything for a family, but not just any family, a  _ real  _ family. But she could feel her throat closing up, so she quickly put that dangerous thought in a box in her brain and pushed the box as far away from her as possible. That boat has sailed.

While she waited, she picked up her notebook and started doodling on one of the blank pages. A set of bars, an eye, a car. She quickly stopped when she realized what her brain was doing and put the notebook back in her bag. And as if on cue, Rip Hunter walked through the doors. 

“Sara,” he said with a sigh. “What happened this time?”

Immediately, her defenses came up and she stood up to face him. “It wasn’t my fault, they-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” he snapped. “Wait here while I talk to the officers.”

“I haven’t done anything!” She called after him in an angry tone, but sighed herself and sat back down. He would calm down. After another ten minutes, he came out and looked less angry.

“So, you’re not under arrest?”

“ _ No, _ ” she said with a tired voice and looked at him. “They left me here. Can we please just go so that I can sleep?”

He was quiet for a second. “Fine, but I’m calling the Andersson’s tomorrow.”

“Fine,” she repeated, using his tone, and stood up and pulled her backpack onto her shoulder. “Now, where have you arranged for me to stay this time?” 

Rip looked for a second into her eyes but apparently decided that he didn’t want to take that conversation here. “The Sharpe’s. It’s not permanently, they already have six children, but it’s a  _ for now _ until I can find a  _ forever _ . C’mon,” He said and opened the door. “They live in a city about two hours from here. If we leave now, we’ll be there by ten.”

“Great,” she says sarcastically. “Let’s hurry, we might even have time to  _ bond  _ before bedtime.” And she walked past him and out to the car. She opens the door to the backseat and climbs in, dropping her bag on the floor and shuts the door. Rip enters the car a minute later, still shaking his head.

“Sara, I know it’s been hard-”

“Don’t,” Sara warned.

“But-”

“Just,” she took a breath. “Just drive, Rip. I’m tired, and I’m not having  _ that  _ conversation tonight.”

He starts the car and mutters, “Alright,” under his breath. She really hoped that she imagined it, but his tone sounded so torn up. Maybe he was tired, too. 

They drove through the evening in silence, the only sound that was heard was the spinning of the car engine. When they entered the city limits, Rip called the family and told them that they were close. Sara could feel the tension build up in her chest. There were many things that she didn’t like, but one thing she’d learned that she despised was meeting new temporarily families. They were usually cold and barely even remembered to ask what her name was. Four out of the six ones she had been to had been places like that, and they all had been the same. 

Rip, sensing Sara’s change of mood turned back in his seat once he had parked the car. “Now, Sara, I want you to know that this family is-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Rip,” she snapped. “Let me guess,” she said when she saw his tired expression. “They want me to get in the back because their children are sleeping? Or no, better, they want me to go down to the door in the basement because they don’t want my dirt scattered around the house.”

Rip waited a second. “Are you done?” She lifted an eyebrow. “No, they’re not like that,” he continued. “They would like you to meet their family, they had actually waited to go to bed and has even prepared an evening snack so that you all could sit down and get to know each other better.”

That left Sara slightly shook. Not many families had done that. Her eyes must have still shown her insecurities because Rip suddenly smiled.

“They also wanted to let  _ you  _ know that I also could come so that you wouldn’t have to be alone.”

Now she was really shocked. “Really?” She said before she could stop herself. He nodded. 

“Now, are you ready to meet them? They know that this is temporary, but they also know that we don’t know for how long you’ll be staying with their family and it was important for them for you all to get along, and especially important was it for them to know that you would be comfortable staying with them.”

“They said that? They wanted me to feel welcome?” Sara swallowed. “Not one…” She whispered quietly before stopping herself. She sucked in a breath and looked up towards the ceiling. “Alright,” she said after a minute. “Let’s go in and meet them.”

She jumped out of the car and waited just long enough to hear his door slam shut before walking up to the Sharpe’s front door. It was a massive white door with windows on both sides of it. She took a long deep breath while she pressed the doorbell that was on her left but only had to wait about three seconds before the door was pulled open. 

She was met by a tall man in his late forties she assumed, judging by the small wrinkles by his eyes and around his mouth and the greying hair on the sides of his head. She was happy to notice that the wrinkles were ones from simply smiling too much.

“You must be Sara,” he said in a loud but warm tone. “I’m Stuart.”

Sara was quick to hold out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.” She said, but he only looked at her hand for a second before patting it away with one of his hands and instead went in for a hug. 

“I’m only called ‘sir’ and ‘mr Sharpe’ at work. At home, it’s either dad or Stuart, but I’ll let you choose that one,” he chuckled and embraced her tiny body with his massive one. Even though Sara tensed up, he waited with releasing her until he felt her relax a bit. “Sorry,” he said when he let her go. “But I think handshakes are way too formal.” He smiled at her and Sara found herself smiling back, a genuine smile that surprised even herself. Stuart noticed this and turned to Rip, letting Sara be in her own head for a second.

“Ah, Rip, my good friend, come in! The whole gang is up and waiting in the living room! I’m sure you still remember the way, eh?” Rip laughed and stepped inside, motioning for Sara to follow. Sara took a hesitant step over the doorstep and removed her shoes and put them neatly in line with the rest of the shoes that stood, not so neatly, by a shoe stand. Neither Rip or Stuart commented on this, they were too absorbed in a conversation about the past three years.

“So,” Stuart said. “How’ve you been? Last time we saw each other was at court, one of the happiest days of my life as you surely know,” he added and slapped Rip friendly on the arm. Rip laughed and smiled at Stuart.

“Oh you know, same old tale, I live for my work.”

“Ah, and you’re hella good at it, too!” Stuart said, not pressing the matter further. “So, Sara,” he said and turning slightly and let Rip walk ahead. “How old are you?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Perfect,” he said with a smile. “You’ll fit right in with all of the others.” Sara didn’t have time to ask, because suddenly they had come to the end of the hall and stood in the entrance of the living room. Rip was in the process of hugging the rest of the family, but Sara could feel everyone’s eyes on her. Stuart, sensing this too, faked a cough and said with a loud voice, “Everyone, this is Sara!”

Sara brought her hand up, an attempt at an awkward wave, but quickly dropped her hand because Stuart had put a hand on her back and pushed her forward to what Sara understood must be his wife.

“Hi Sara,” she said with a soft voice. “It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Nora, and I hope that you’re hungry,” she said and gestured to the table beside the couch. It was filled with every edible snack you could think of, and Sara couldn’t help but let out a surprised laugh.

“But it’s Tuesday,” she finally said which made everyone laugh.

“Hell yeah!” Stuart said and squeezed her shoulders. “But it’s not every day we get a new family member, so dig in!” He laughed again and went around the couch and sat down in an armchair she strongly suspected was his armchair and his alone. Nora went to sit in the middle of the couch, grabbing some grapes on her way down and patted the seat next to her.

“Come,” she said and help out her other hand at Sara. As Sara sat down, she started to notice the other people in the room. The children she had presumed to be of ages three to ten where, if she guessed correctly, about her own age to twenty. 

“Alright,” Stuart called. “Settle down, will you? I thought that we could begin with introducing ourselves so that she can’t blame us for not knowing our names later on.” Everyone laughed heartily, and so did Sara. Stuart kicked it all off by introducing himself, that earned more laughs and slaps from his closest children, and added that his favorite thing to do was to come home to this home and spend time with his wonderful family. After that comment, a lot of ‘aw’s’ where uttered and Stuart almost had to raise his voice for the teasing to stop.

“Alright, Jax, hit it!” He pointed to the African American boy that was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor next to him with a slight grin on his face. 

“Alright, pops,” he said. “Name’s Jax,” he said with catchy voice and smiled at her, “and I love to be in the garage and fix all of the broken machinery that is down there.” He smirked when he felt the light slap on his arm, a slap from Stuart.

“Hey, kid, you forget to mention that almost everything that is broken is  _ your  _ doing!” But they both ended up chuckling when Jax just shrugged his shoulders. Sara didn’t mind their bickering, she actually rather enjoyed it, but Nora called the attention back to the group and pointed to the next person next to Jax. She was sitting on a chair she had taken from the dining room table, and then she realized that she must be sitting on her seat. But she wore a warm smile on her lips and made the same awkward wave that Sara had done.

“Hi, I’m Amaya,” she said and dropped her hand. “I’m a junior at Klemmer High and I love to just be with my friends and with Vixen. Oh, and Vixen is my dog, but we weren’t sure if you were allergic or not so he’s in my room.” Sara could hear the question that was left unsaid, so when Amaya had spoken, Sara was fast to reply.

“I’m not. Allergic, that is,” she clarified. “And I love dogs, so it won’t be a problem,” she said and sent a small smile towards Amaya, who was already bearing one much larger.

“Great,” she breathed. “Then we’ll get along just fine!” She said in a happy tone and looked to the girl beside her.

“Guess I’m up,” she said with a bit more confidence than Amaya. “I’m Zari, the newest addition to this amazing household, next to you, of course,” she added and smiled her way. “Anyways, besides all of the boring school work I have to do, I love to discover the great mystery of the computer. When I go to college, I plan on mastering in computer science. Oh, but don’t worry, I’m not your textbook nerd, I don’t go expressing my love for it every second of every day like Ray here does,” she said and with a laugh received a stern glance from the boy on the couch, the one sitting next to Sara.

“Hey!” He said and watched how he collected himself before turning to face  Sara, but leaving enough space between them so that they wouldn’t be so up close and personal. Sara instantly liked him.

“Hi, I’m Raymond, but everyone calls me Ray. I dream of being an inventor, just think about the whole mystery of it! And I also would like to start my own company, so that all of the inventions can be sold to a fairly reasonable price so that ordinary people like myself actually can by it,” he added with a bit of a sore tone to it.” Sara found herself smiling yet again, and placed a hand on his arm.

“You know, I just have this feeling that your dream is going to come true.” She received one of the brightest smiles in return from Ray and got an excited ‘thank you!’ back. But what she missed was the soft smiles sent her way by Nora and Stuart.

Sara let go of Ray and turned so that she was looking at the face of the third boy. “So that leaves me then,” he said jokingly. “I’m Nate, it’s nice to meet you. I love both soccer and history, I know, such a mix doesn’t exist, but that’s me. One second out with the boys and the other holed up in here, with my nose in a book.” Sara snorted, and everyone followed suit and laughed.

“And then there’s our daughter, Ava,” Nora continued, “but she’s running a bit late I’m afraid, but you’ll meet her in the morning,” she said kindly. “Now, if you would like, we don’t know anything about you! Would you mind sharing something?” She felt them all looking at her with curious but relaxed eyes, so she didn’t mind at all talking for a while.

“Well, how could I not. Okay, I grew up in DC, and uhm, I’m a junior, schools okay I guess. I don’t really have a favorite subject, except maybe gym if that counts,” at this, a few laughs were heard, and she smiled. “Maybe not, oh well. On my free time I like to listen to music and work out, but other than that I just do my homework and sleep.”

Before anyone had time to say something, Jax held up a hand. “Wait, hold up, are you saying that you  _ work out _ voluntarily? And you enjoy it?” Sara nodded. Jax whistled lowly. “I did not know that such a person existed,” he said seriously, and held his face three more seconds before releasing a laugh, and everyone followed suit.

“You jackass,” Amaya said and slapped him lightly on the arm while shaking with laughter. “Do you prefer a sport, or is it just at the gym you’re working out?”

“Well,” Sara began with a little more feeling in her voice. “I like to try new things. Lately, I’ve been kind of into different styles of martial arts, but I also enjoy boxing and weight training, and some regular sports such as soccer and basketball. I’ve also danced some, but I haven’t done that in years so I’m probably a bit rusty.” She shrugged at this like this was normal, but now it was Nate’s turn to speak.

“You play soccer?” His eyes practically shown. Sara nodded, and he didn’t even hesitate. “Would you have any interest in helping me with some drills? They’re pretty basic, but I need someone to train with-”

“I’m in,” Sara said, surprising both herself and Nate who, at this precise moment was doing a fist pump in the air accompanied with a sound of joy.

“Alright, alright everyone,” Stuart said with his unique warmth when he noticed Sara’s attempt at hiding a yawn. “You lot can continue your interrogation in the morning, but now it’s bedtime. Chop, chop,” he added and clapped his hands. Everyone began to stand and one by one, after either hugging Sara or lightly slapping her arm, went up the stairs to their beds. When they all had gone up, Sara turned to Stuart.

“I’m not sure if I should ask-”

“Yes, they’re all adopted,” Stuart said with a broad smile. “In this house, Sara, I want you to know that no question is dumb, and you are not a burden. While you are here, you are apart of our family, and, as you just saw, you will fit right in.” He smiled warmly at her, and at the sight of the tears building in her eyes, he swept her into one of his bearhugs. “It’s alright,” he said and patted her back reassuringly. 

“You can always come to me or Nora, with anything. And when you’re ready, we hope that we can help you carry the burden that you so clearly do. But only when you’re ready, so don’t rush. Why don’t we begin with finding you your bed, hm?” Sara nodded. 

“We made the bed in our guest room, and that room has its own bathroom so you don’t have to worry about anyone else. Come,” he said and started guiding her to it. “It’s on this floor, but we’ll be only one flight of stairs up if you need anything. Nora laid out a pair of Ava’s pajamas for you, we were unsure if you had anything with you.”

Sara shook her head. “I only,” she said but had to pause to clear her throat, not having realized that it was almost sewn shut because of all of the gratitude she was feeling. “I only have this,” she said and brought her backpack down. “It’s not much,” she was fast to mention. “But it’s enough.”

“Enough,” said Stuart and gave the bag a once over. “When we brought Jax in, he had three boxes in storage worth of things. Hm…” He said before giving Sara a warm smile. “I’m sorry, you must be tired. But I do hope that you’ll feel at home while you’re here-”

He never got to finish his sentence, because Sara had suddenly turned around at top speed and was giving him the hardest and longest hugs she’d remembered giving since everything changed. “Thank you,” she mumbled into his shirt and felt the pressure of him returning the hug with the equal emotion.

“I know calling you so late and springing her on you so fast was unprofessional, but I couldn’t think of any other family willing to take her in so quickly. Thank you, I really think that she needs this.” 

Rip stood in the kitchen, talking to Nora while he tiredly rubbed his temples.

“What happened to her?” She asked. “She just seems so… Broken.”

He sighed. “Yeah, that’s one word for it. She lost her entire family about a year ago, on January 22nd, and she’s not had the easiest introductions to the foster systems. She’s gone through six families…” Rip seemed lost in thought for a while before continuing. “I don’t think it’s her fault, or well, she’s mostly walking around with a chip on her shoulder, or a cloud over her head, whatever you would like to call it that some families have found hard to handle. She doesn’t open up very often, but I assure you, I have never seen this much of the real Sara. I really think that you might be what she needs.”

Nora sighed. “Rip-”

“I know,” he was fast to add. “I know that this is temporary, and so does she, but that does not change the fact that I believe that she will be a changed person when she leaves this house.”

That made her smile. “Thank you for those kind words. I’m only saying, we’ve already got six children to feed and to send away off to college, adding Sara to the mix with so much anger and sadness… I just don’t know how it will work permanently.”

“I understand,” Rip said with a heavy sigh. “I’m just grateful-”

But he didn’t get any further, because Stuart came in with long strides and didn’t stop until he was on the opposite side of the counter, looking at both of them with a new kind of fire.

“I don’t care about anything other than that broken girl in our spare bedroom in this moment. I don’t care about how much I have to beg you Nora or plead with you Rip, but I’m telling you both now. That girl is not leaving this house if I’ve got any say in this. She  _ needs  _ us, and she’s not going into that damned system again only to come out of it far worse than she is now.”

While Nora looked at Stuart in slight shock, Rip looked at him with a fond smile. 

“But Stuart,” Nora said after a second. “We don’t have the room-”

“We’ll make room, dear,” he said with a teary-eyed expression. “Lately I’ve been feeling like something was missing, but I didn’t know what. I already have a beautiful wife and an amazing family. I just didn’t know that one of my daughters was the one thing that was missing.”

  
  



	2. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! 
> 
> Wow, I'm blown away with the positive response that I received from the first chapter, thank you all so much for reading and sharing your thoughts with me! It means the world to me, especially since my actual work is during such weird hours. But, you all kept inspiring me, so that's why I'm posting this new and this very unedited chapter of TWOL at 1 AM, with a bowl of ice cream and music on to keep me awake. But you're all worth it, so I guess that it's okay :)
> 
> This is a slightly longer, and slightly more angsty chapter than first one, but one huge reason is that I wanted Sara's environments and friends to be as detailed as possible, just because I like it myself that way and is annoyed when it isn't, hehe. But here you go, enjoy this brand new chapter and you'll hear from me again when it's time for the next chapters, but now, sleep for me :) - xoxo fantasycloud

Sara wakes up with a gasp, her hair sticking to her forehead and her clothes damp from sweat. She tries to take a calming deep breath, but it’s broken by a quiet sob.

“It’s okay,” she tries to calm herself with and clasp her arms around her legs. “It’s okay, you were dreaming. You were only dreaming.” She could feel how her airway started to tighten up, and she fell apart some more. “Please,” she said with a broken voice.

But it was too late. She could feel the panic attack hit her full on. Her breaths accelerated and in no time she felt herself hyperventilating, her chest felt to tight and the room wouldn’t quite stand still. She started pressing more and more inwards, literally, she pressed the hands that she had around herself with so much force against her diafragma that she was forced to take a deep gulp of air, forcing her body to start over. 

The shaking started in her arms and spread all the way throughout her body, and once they started she couldn’t stop them. She hated feeling like this, so utterly helpless from herself. Would she ever get better? 

She had been having at least one of these attacks almost every week since the accident. Why was she forced to relive it? She didn’t want to remember their screams, or the way that their faces was twisted after Sara realized that they wouldn’t change. It was like that version of them was etched into her mind, seared into her brain and sewn close to her dreams. She put her head in between her knees and forced a sob back down her throat. They are  _ gone _ . If only they would  _ stay _ gone, too.

Later that morning, Sara got up and showered before she had hear anyone else move in the house. The clock on her nightstand showed 6 am and she doubted that anyone would be up until at least 6:30, so she took her opportunity to wash up a bit. When she was done she took out her other set of clothes, a pair of simple torn black jeans and a blue shirt. With only her jacket otherwise, she knew that she would be cold. But she didn’t own anything else, so that would have to make due. She had just finished putting her hair up in a messy bun with she heard a knock on her door.

“Come in,” Sara said and turned to the door as it opened to reveal Nora.

“Good morning, love,” she said with a small smile on her lips. “Did you sleep well?” She asked carefully while studying her face. Sara was almost tempted to tell her the truth, but decided against it.

“Yes, I slept very well, thank you.”

She saw how Nora’s eyes scanned over her bruised eyes and paused there, but decided to let it go. “Wonderful. Come, let’s go and eat breakfast,” she said and held out at hand. She carefully took it and it was almost like a shock went through her body at the feel of her warmth spreading through her body. Almost like a fire within her had been set free. She swallowed back the tears and followed her into the kitchen where several tired and moody teenagers sat and ate breakfast.

“Good morning!” Ray said enthusiastically and instantly pulled out the chair next to him. “What a beautiful day it is, don’t you think so, Sara?”

“Ugh, Ray, just  _ shut up _ ,” Zari says with a tormented voice while her head is buried in her hands. “Can we please just eat in silence?”

“Now, Z,” Nova said sternly, but was interrupted by a loud yawn from Nate. Sara tried, and failed miserably, to hide a snort that made Jax and Amaya snort too, and soon they were all laughing except from Zari who looked around at the group, probably thinking that they all were a bunch of morning-disturbed morons. She had just opened her mouth when Stuart entered the room with a smile already in place.

“Good morning, loves. Are we killing each other yet or are we behaving?” He said and looked straight at Zari, who just groaned and mumbled in her arms.

“I’m on the brink of an explosion.”

“Aaand, that means that we’re good?” He said with a laugh, and her only answer was a grunt. He laughed and turned around to face Sara.

“So, what would you like for breakfast? As you see, we have almost everything if not everything has been eaten already by our extremely hungry Nate.” As Nate started to protest, Sara quickly scanned the table for something edible. 

“It’s fine, this is fine, thanks,” she said quickly and sat down beside Ray. “Would you mind passing the milk and cereal?” He happily did so, and soon everyone was seated and eating. Sara learned that this was everything but a quiet family, they laughed, bickered, talked and teased each other every second, and she found herself smiling at the scene. She tried to suppress the sadness that came creeping and settled in her chest, and failed at that too.

“Excuse me,” she said and stood up on shaky legs from the dining room table. She walked with an unsteady pace back to the room that was hers, and had just closed her door when the second panic attack hit her that day. She could hear her breaths come in shorter and shorter gasps, and she could feel tears streaming down her face. How was any of this fair? How come this family could be perfect and hers couldn’t? Why did everything have to go wrong? 

She had been sitting by her door with tears silently rolling down her cheeks for a couple of minutes when a quiet knock was heard. She flinched at the sound, and was quick to reply.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Sara?” Said a girl’s voice. “It’s Amaya. Can I come in?”

“You know, now is not really the best time-”

“Please?”

Sara waited a second to respond because it felt like her throat might explode, but eventually she nodded, remembered that she couldn’t see her, and reached up to unlock it. Amaya took that as a sign, and slowly opened the door. She scanned the room, and came to a stop when she saw Sara’s broken figure by the door. She looked up at her with red eyes and tears streaming down her cheeks, and Amaya had about enough time to sit down beside her before the girl broke down completely.

Sara hid her face in Amaya’s shoulder and let herself go. Hard sobs broke free and her body made such brutal sounds of sadness that it shocked even her. She felt Amaya’s hand come up and stroke her hair, and that just made it worse.

“Shhh,” she said in her ear. “It will pass. Just let it all out, and you’ll be fine.”

She cried harder after that. When she pulled free from her shoulder, Sara was horrified to see that it was completely drenched.

“Don’t think about it,” she reassured her and smiled softly. “You know, it’s not healthy to keep all of that inside.” Sara chuckled and wiped her face clean of dried up tears. “When I came here, I was so broken I was afraid that I might never be able to stitch the pieces of me back together.”

“But you did,” Sara stated.

“Yes, I did,” she said and hummed. “But it took weeks for me to start accepting them. It was hard, but it was worth it.” She went quiet for a second, as if she started to remember something, and then sighed. “Being here… Being apart of this family, I never forget about my own though.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I think about them all of the time. I’ll tell you about them someday,” she looked at her with a small smile and suddenly started to stand. “But first, come on, wash your face and meet me by my car because we’re going to school.”

“School?” Sara let out an exasperated sigh and let her head fall to the wall behind her. “I thought Rip had forgotten to remind them of that damned place.”

“Uh uh,” Amaya said with a laugh. “Come on, otherwise we’ll be late. Here school starts at 8:30 am, or well, if you want you can add an hour and half of sports if you’re interested before any of the classes start, but going to school at 8:30 is bad enough, but to be there at  _ seven a.m. _ -”

“Where do I sign up?”

Amaya drove them to school, and when she parked the car the clock on the dashboard read 8:16. Just the perfect timing for her to get her schedule and sign up for the training that just happened to be at the ass-crack of dawn. Perfect.

“Hey I forgot to ask, this Ava, what’s her deal? Why is she never home?”

Amaya snorted and shook her head. “No, she’s home. She came home about fifteen minutes after you’d gone to bed and at the beginning of the school year she signed up for the training sessions that you’re about to do, so she left just before you came out for breakfast. But don’t worry, you’ll meet her tonight.” Sara nodded and followed Amaya inside the school building.

“Oh.” She doesn’t ask about her further, but she somehow got the feeling that this Ava was avoiding her. Was she being ridiculous? Probably. But could anyone blame her? Not really.

When they stepped into the school, Sara was surprised by how light it was. The huge windows that surrounded the doors surely helped, but it was something else as well. The walls, the lockers, the atmosphere… Everything was light somehow. In any case, she liked it. All of the other school’s always overdid it with all of the colors, almost as if a rainbow had puked all over the school. Not that she had any problems with rainbows, but having every color practically in your face twenty four seven was very distracting.

Amaya led Sara to the headmasters office, it was located at the top floor so they had to climb six staircases. When they reached the top, Amaya was panting but Sara, thanks to her regular workout schedule, wasn’t bothered too much.

“There, just go inside and said that Rip called ahead for you. That’s what he did with Nate and Zari. I’ll be waiting outside the cafeteria for you, so don’t be late!” She said and started walking to her own class. “You’re going to be fine!” She said loudly without turning her head, but Sara smiled because she knew that those words were meant for her. So she took a deep breath and knocked on the headmaster’s door.

“Come in,” a voice said, so she turned the doorknob and stepped inside.

Inside the headmaster’s room there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. A desk, one chair looking slightly more comfortable behind it and one simple plastic one opposite the other. Behind that was three rather large bookcases, all stacked with a mix of the school literature, textbooks from various classes and the headmaster’s private binders and folders with loose papers and colored markers sticking out of it from odd places. In between all of those things were small personal decorative objects such as photos, awards that Sara doubted was the headmaster’s and other small things that for Sara was insignificant. 

The other three walls were almost bare, one wall was covered with windows that, funny enough, was facing the student dining hall, the second wall was only accompanied with a smaller bookcase with counseling brochures on its shelf and by the third wall a smaller soft green couch, not small enough for it to be a loveseat but not big enough to be called a regular couch, stood with a small table in front of it where at this moment a candle was flicking. A fake, of course, because this was after all a school and in school’s real candles was usually not allowed.

After Sara’s quick analysis of the room, her attention was turned to the slightly shorter woman in front of her, sitting on her desk with several papers in her hand and with her attention now torn from them, looking directly at her.

“Hi, may I help you?” 

“Yes,” Sara said and closed the door behind her. “I’m Sara Lance, Rip Hunter called about me?” The headmaster, or rather headmistress for that matter, nodded once and shook the papers in her hand slightly.

“Ah, well, I’ve been going through your record file and wow, there’s a lot to read about you, I must say…”

Sara shuffled from her right foot to her left and then back again, unsure of what comment was appropriate. “And?”

“ _ And _ , I’m having a hard time getting a schedule done for you,” she continued. “This is quite impressive, you’ve changed school’s six times over the course of nearly a year, and still manages to get top grades in every class?” Sara nods one time. “But, that means that you’ve also been  _ kicked out  _ of all six of them, of course,” she adds more sternly.

“In here it describes a lot about all of the fights that you’ve mostly initiated, of how you  _ broke someone’s arm _ ?”

“That was an acc-”

“ident, yes, it says so in here as well. Do you know, miss Lance, what I see when I look at you?”

_ A failure? _

“A person who is in need of a new start.”

That makes Sara look at her with new eyes. A new start? Even with the textbook thick file that Rip had sent over? Sara took a step forward, but regained her posture and settled with just relaxing a bit.

“Really?” She asks, and hates the way her voice betrays her. It almost sounds yearning. But she hadn’t yearned for this, had she?

“Yes,” she said and put the file aside. “Why don’t we set up a temporarily schedule for you now so that you can go and join your classmates?” Sara nodded, and for once in her life, at a loss for words.

“If I may-” but she interrupted herself before she could finish. But the headmistress’s eyes met her.

“Yes?”

“Is it possible for me to add that seven o’clock sports class?”

Then the headmistress smiled for the first time. “Of course. I see here that gym is your favorite class?” Sara nodded. “Well, we do have a rather large option of sports to choose from. Some students only choose one day, other’s choose three. And it doesn’t have to be the same sport, but if you’re interested in joining any of the school team’s, that should be a priority of yours. Is it a priority?”

“No,” she said quickly. “I just like to move. What are the choices?”

She and the headmistress, on the label on her desk it read  _ Headmistress Gideon _ , weird name, anyway, sat down, Sara on the couch and the headmistress had dragged the plastic chair up next to it, and went over the classes and various sports sessions that she would partake in and in twenty minutes time she had a printed out schedule in her hand and a blank note that, by the end of the day, was going to be filled out by every teacher and handed back to the headmistress.

“This is a promising start, miss Lance. I do hope that you’ll take this chance as an opportunity to start over. I really believe that you can,” she adds and smiles. “Now, your first class has already started, but I will walk you to it. Mr Stein is expecting you.”

They walked out of her office and walked down two flights of stairs and came to a stop outside of room 236. On the door there was a poster saying “ _ The science of today is the technology of tomorrow _ ”. Sara hoped that this teacher stuck to the teaching plan, she hated being behind and especially in science class. Headmistress Gideon knocked and opened the door.

“Mr Stein, sorry for the interruption but I have Miss Lance with me,” she said and ushered her into the room. 

“Oh, yes,” he said and turned their way. Mr Stein was an elderly teacher with white hair and glasses, he had beige trousers and a knitted blue cardigan and looked like any other teacher. The only rare thing was that he seemed very excited, she had no idea if it was because he had just gotten a new student, if it was because of the headmistress or because he simply loved his subject. “Er, class,” he said and turned to the classroom full of people now staring at her. 

“This is miss Sara Lance. Please,” he said and beckoned her forward. “We’re discussing the particle accelerator today and, hm, ah yes, you can take a seat next to miss Smoak,” he said and pointed to one of the only left seats in the class, a seat next to a girl in a high ponytail and glasses at the front of the class. 

She nodded and walked over and sat down, she gave this ‘miss Smoak’ a look and realized that she was deep in her notebook, her hand scribbling down notes furiously as mr Stein began to speak again. Sara looked at the clock, it was now 8:40 and the class had only started ten minutes ago. Sara checked the other girl out again and saw with horror that this girl had the whole page full of weird numbers and odd words scribbled down. Was this just from today’s class? She groaned inwards. This was going to become one of her least favourite classes, she just had a feeling. But instead of giving up, she picked up her notebook from her previous science class and opened up a blank page and brought forward a pen and started taking notes. 

Starting over, she reminded herself, and tried to lose herself in whatever mr Stein was trying to explain. 

At the end of class, Sara’s head was spinning. This mr Stein clearly had very high thoughts of his students, because this was the most intense science class she had ever had. If she passed this class, MIT or Harvard or any other college wouldn’t be a problem, or that’s what it felt like anyway. While Sara put down her notebook in her backpack and brought her schedule forward, a shadow fell over her desk. She looked up and saw a new person standing beside her with a smile on his face.

“Hi!” He said and smiled. “I’m Winn Schott, you’re Sara, right?” She nodded. “Oh, great, I’m terrible with names,” he said and laughed nervously. “Well, anyway, I know that mr Stein’s classes can seem hard, but if you ever need any help, feel free to ask me.”

Sara smiled. “Thanks, Winn! Yeah, I noticed that he’s not joking around,” she said and stood up and threw her backpack over her shoulder. “Has he ever followed the planned out course of this class or does he make up his own?”

Winn laughed. “Well, we’ve already gone through the initial planning of it, so now we’re just exploring some of the more advanced stuff.”

“Hold up, you’re already  _ through  _ it all? But it’s not even christmas break yet?”

“Yeah, well, when you’re in the Advanced class, he tends to speed things up a bit.”

Sara’s quiet for a second. “Well, that makes sense I guess. Hold up,” she says to Winn and walks up to mr Stein.

“Uhm, mr Stein, could you sign-”

“Oh yes, miss Lance! How did it go today? Could you catch on to something?”

She was a bit taken aback but she quickly regained herself. “Yes, sir, I believe I could. I use to sometimes borrow the more advanced books about certain aspects of the unknown and luckily I picked one up from particle acceleration a weeks ago.”

“Wonderful,” he said and signed her outstretched note. “Tomorrow I’ll have made some copies for you to go over about all of the things that we’ve already worked on, but considering your grades and your previous records in this class I don’t think that it should be any problem for you to catch up. Have a nice day, miss Lance,” he said and handed her back her note.

She took it and turned around to go and meet Winn who had waited for her by the door.

“Great, so what class do you have next?” 

She looked at her schedule. “Uhm, english with ms Grant,” she said. Winn’s face brightened up. 

“Great, come, I’ll introduce you to some of my friends!” Sara groaned inside.

“That’s really not-” Sara began but Winn’s shout stopped her.

“Hey, guys!” Winn shouted and interrupted Sara’s attempt at escape. The group that Winn had shouted at looked up and Sara noted that one of the girls was the girl that had been next to Sara.

“Sara, this is Felicity, Cisco, Caitlin, Lena and Kara, everyone, this is Sara!” Winn said and beamed at them.

“Hey!” Said a blonde girl that had waved at Winn’s mention at ‘Kara’. “I’m Kara,” Sara guessed correctly, “do you have english with us?” Sara nodded. “Cool, well, welcome, I guess!” She said with a dorky smile on her face. “Nothing special happens here, really, just your ordinary boring american high school,” she laughed nervously and fidgeted a little with her shirt. “But,” she hastily added and looked up slightly panicked, “I don’t mean that anything  _ ever  _ happens here, fun things happens too! Like, uhm, like Felicity here!” Kara said and pointed at the girl that Sara sat next to in science. “She’s just been selected by our state after winning the state competition to go and compete in the allstate competition in maths! Isn’t that just  _ so  _ awesome!”

Sara couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips, because this girl was adorable. Not as in ‘I think you’re cute and adorable so I want to date you’, but more like ‘I think you’re cute when you’re nervous’ kind of adorable. And it was very fortunate that she thought that, because the second after the brunette walked up behind Kara and laced their fingers together. 

“Alright, Kara, she gets it,” she laughed and held out her hand to Sara. “Hi, I’m Lena, and don’t mind my ridiculous girlfriend over here, she’s a babbler when she’s nervous.” Sara laughed at that and took her hand. “Hey!” Kara said, but Lena and everyone else just laughed that eventually Kara’s expression changed into an embarrassed grin as well.

“I kind of got that,” she said with a grin on her face and felt herself becoming more at ease. 

Caitlin and Cisco also introduced themselves, and Sara had started to understand that she’d been introduced and accepted by the school’s most intelligent kids. Winn was very skilled in science, physics and math, as were Felicity and Lena, while Caitlin shown in biology as well as math. Kara was the ‘Golden Star’ in english and also ms Grant’s pet student, and Lena and Cisco excelled both in science, physics, math and chemistry. Sara thanked her lucky stars silently in her head, if she ever needed any help, she could ask any one of them. Not that she ever would, but she could. It was a slight comfort at least.

As they were talking, the bell rang and they walked into the classroom and took their seats. This time, ms Grant placed her next to a girl named Alex Danvers. And by a poke in the back from Lena, Sara learned that this was Kara’s sister. 

In this class, she learned that ms Grant did not kid around. Any toe out of line, and she was sure to put that tow right back where it belonged. As she went through this week’s assignment, Sara realized that this was almost as hard as mr Stein’s. Had Gideon placed her in every advanced class there was? Had Rip said anything to make that happen?

The only difference was that in this class, Alex actually talked to her some. When they had an exercise about discussing Pride and Prejudice she ignored that completely and asked her about Sara herself.

“So, where’re you from?”

“D.C.,” Sara said and turned slightly towards Alex in her seat. Alex had brown short hair and wore ripped blue jeans and a baggy grey t shirt that had a print of a band on it that Sara had never heard of. 

“D.C.? Wow, you’re a long way from home. Have you visited NYC yet?” Sara shook her head.

“No, I haven’t had the time.”

“Well, do you have any plans on saturday?” Sara thought about it before shaking her head.

“Well,” Alex said with a grin. “We’re all going, me, my girlfriend Maggie, Kara, Lena, Thea,” she paused a second. “Do you know any of these people besides me, Kara and Lena?” Sara couldn’t suppress her smile this time and shook her head before letting out a snort. Alex joined her. “Well, it’s going to be fun. We’re thinking about going in and just hanging out in central park, Thea always brings her speaker and it’ll just be a fun day. And now you’re coming.”

“I am?”

“Yes!” Said Lena from behind. “Come, it’ll be fun! And this way you’ll meet, well, almost everyone!”

“How many more could you guys be?” Sara laughed, but quickly pretended to talk about the book when she noticed ms Grant walking down their aisle. Alex and Lena quickly joined her and Sara hoped that ms Grant hadn’t heard them talking over the loud noise in the class.

“Miss Lance,” ms Grant said and stopped by her seat. Sara looked up and nodded. “Gideon has told me a lot about you, and she had very high thoughts of you. I hope that her faith in you is not misplaced,” she said and walked on. Sara was left with a blank mind and felt Alex poke her side.

“Dude, you’re on her list!”

“Her list?”

“Yeah!” Alex said with both enthusiasm and fear. “Ms Grant only have a few on her list, and that list is for students who she thinks has a very promising future! Not just here, but in college and in life as well! Man, you’re lucky,” she said and leaned back.

“Lucky? She’ll be watching me extra closely!” Alex shrugged. 

“Yeah, but still. It’s great training, just ask Kara.”

Sara made a mental note to talk to Kara later, but for now she focused back on ms Grant, because she was calling the attention back to her.

After this class, history came next, taught by a mr Wells. In this class, she got to sit with Zari which was a relief, because any more new names and her head would explode.

“So,” she started and turned Sara’s way. “Have you met some people yet? Or are you one of those so-called ‘lonely’ people?” Sara grinned and punched her arm lightly.

“I have met some people actually.”

Compared to her previous classes, this one was a joke. After five minutes of mr Wells standing and talking, he gave them the simplest of assignments and left them to talk about whatever. Sara had already done this, so that meant forty minutes of talking about anything other than the assignment, obviously.

“Who?” Zari said with faked enthusiasm, but still with enough interest not to seem bored. Sara liked Zari, not so serious, but still serious enough, if that made any sense.

“Well, Winn introduced me to his friends-”

“What?” Zari said. “They rarely talk to anyone else. They barely talked to me my first  _ months  _ coming here. Seriously, they just started accepting me, and they just decide to like you?” Sara raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, jealous,” she said and pointed at herself, “continue.”

“Anyway, and then Alex, Kara’s sister, invited me to come with them on saturday. They’re apparently going to New York?”

“Can we please exchange bodies? I would  _ love  _ to come! On your first day you’ve not only been accepted into one friends group, but  _ two _ . The nerdy ones and the sporty ones-”

“Wait,” Sara said and grinned. “Did you say the sporty ones?”

“Oh, yeah. Alex plays ice hockey with Maggie and Kara, but Kara’s with the other nerds because Lena’s there and she’s best friends with Winn. And where Alex and her team goes, usually some of the guys from the soccer team come along. We’re pretty friendly at this school when I think about it, not many people here hates each other, I know, shocking,” she says when Sara makes a face. “And, I don’t know, they just hang out and have a fun time.”

“Do you think that Stuart and Nora will let me go?” Sara asked hesitantly, but Zari nodded instantly.

“Yes, they believe in group activities. Plus, Ava always hangs around with those so they know some of them too.”

“Where is she, Ava, anyways?” Sara said and looked around in the classroom before she remembered that she had no idea of what she looked like. 

“She doesn’t take history with me, but you’ll maybe see her at lunch?”

“I’m meeting Amaya,” Sara said and looked back to Zari. “But hey, if you’re not with either of those groups, who are your friends?”

“Well, I hang out with Jax, Roy, Wally, Thea, John and Oliver. We’re a mixed group, but it works.”

Sara nodded and feared how on earth she would learn all of these people’s names. Zari saw her expression and laughed. “I know that it’s a lot, believe me, but it’ll sink in sooner or later. You’ll meet everyone at lunch, too, so don’t worry.”

“Great,” Sara said. Just great. 

The rest of class Zari and Sara talked about other things, Sara asked about Zari’s interest with computers and Zari returned the favor by asking Sara about her sports interest. They were deep into a conversation about weather or not gym was necessary, a conversation that was turning more and more into a funny debate when the bell rang. Sara walked up to mr Wells with Zari behind her and asked for his signature, which he wrote without expressing his high hopes of her being here, which she deeply appreciated. 

“Come, let’s go and eat lunch,” Zari said with enthusiasm and Sara laughed as she trailed behind her. “I’m absolutely starving.” Zari led the way out of the classroom, down four flights of stairs so that they reached the entry level and then took an immediate right turn and in through a large double door, and suddenly they’re standing in the cafeteria. Sara realized that she was a bit shocked to be honest, every other cafeteria was usually filled with loud noises such as trays slamming against the tables, people talking way too loudly and the tables pulled together in odd formations so that certain groups could sit together and at the same time as far apart from other groups as possible.

But not here though.

In here, there were a surprisingly small group of people that occupied the tables, and most of them Sara recognized from her classes. A lot of the kids had their own lunch bags with them, the other qued to the cash register to buy some food, although in that department it looked like usual. Pizza, mac and cheese, chips, etc. But the people in line were actually talking and laughing with each other here, not bickering and starting fights over the most delicious looking pizza slice.

“Okay, what is in this food?” Sara asked Zari, who raised a confused eyebrow at Sara.

“Huh?”

“How come it’s so…” Sara couldn’t even put it into words.

“Quiet?” Sara nodded and Zari laughed and pointed up. And then it clicked as Sara followed her direction and looked straight up into the headmistress’s office.

“Right,” she said and started laughing with Zari. “Silly me, thinking that teens actually could behave, my bad,” she said sarcastically which just made Zari laugh even more.

“Good one,” said a voice behind her. Sara turned and saw Alex making her way over, with a grin on her face. “Hey, we just wondered,” she said and pointed behind her to a couple of girls. “if you wanted to sit with us?”

Sara looked at Zari who nodded and mouthed go, before smoothly walking away while saying “Yo, hold up!” To a group of people Sara was pretty sure that Zari had never spoken with, it might have had something to do with the confusing looks the members of that said group was giving each other, but Sara went with it and turned back to Alex, who had also seen this and was in the middle of an amused eye roll.

“Sure, since Zari just bailed on me,” she said jokingly and smiled when Alex started pushing her towards the group of girls gathered at the door.

“Great! Okay, Sara this is Maggie,” she said and began with pointing at a pretty girl with dark hair and brown eyes, and Sara was quick to notice how Alex said ‘ _ Maggie _ ’, like she was the light to her darkness. Anyways, “Sam, Thea and Kendra. We’re all on the school’s hockey team, feel free to come and watch our practice sometimes by the way!” She smiled at Sara and Sara just hoped that she didn’t notice the absolute noticeable flinch that appeared across Sara’s features at the mention of hockey. 

“Sure, I’ll check it out someday,” she said with a forced smile and turned her eyes to the rest of the group.

“Hey, I’m Sara, we met in class,” she said and gestured to Alex. “Hockey, huh?” Sara added to get the conversation going and soon they were all emerged with talking tactics, and why hockey was so much more fun then the school’s soccer team. They also explained that the soccer team were an all boys team and the hockey team were an all girls team. When Sara asked why, it was simply because the school didn’t have enough interest to have it any other way, the held tryouts in the beginning of the year and formed the teams after that. That seemed reasonable Sara thought, and then just tried to keep up with the girls babble.

While following the girls, she picked up an apple and went for the last pizza slice, but just as she was about to grab it, another hand shot down before hers and had already picked it up before Sara had time to call out. Sara was just about to when the stranger spoke.

“Oh, sorry, did you want that?”

“Yes,” Sara said with an annoyed sigh. “But it’s fine, I’ll grab something else instead.”

“Are you sure? Well, thank you and how nice of you!” The voice said overly polite and so over the top that Sara finally looked up to see if she was joking or actually was this nice after having scanned the trays for some food with no luck.

“I’m sorry?” Sara said, but the sentence was caught in her throat. The stranger was gorgeous, she was tall, her legs went on  _ for miles _ , she had the most perfect blonde hair and as if that wasn't enough, she had striking blue eyes. And plus, her voice was this sexy, kind of raspy, deep voice, and if nothing else about her had turned her on, that did. But Sara slightly shook her head.  _ Focus about the conversation at hand, daydream later. _

“I just said thank you,” she said and raised an eyebrow. Sara looked at her a second longer and just nodded once before turning again, only to be stopped by the girl,  _ again _ . Was she always this annoying?

“Wait, did I say something wrong? And by the way, who are you?” She asked and Sara had to resist the urge of an eyeroll.

“Jeez, don’t worry about it. And I’m Sara, I’m the new kid.”

“Oh,” the girl said, and Sara was so caught up in this girl that she hadn’t noticed that Alex had come up behind the girl until Alex had an arm around this girl’s shoulders.

“Great, I see that you’ve met Ava,” Alex said and laughed. “Ava, this is Sara, and Sara, this is Ava.”

“Wait-” Ava said and looked at Sara with big eyes. “ _ Sara?  _ As in the Sara that mom and dad took in last night, from that social worker?”

And that was the first time that Sara really had to work on self control, because if she hadn’t, her fist wouldn’t just be clenched to her side, it would be soaring for that perfect smile of hers right this second. Because she had just announced to the whole cafeteria, or at least the ones who paid attention, that Sara was who she was, an unwanted nobody that everyone just had to take in spontaneously because she couldn’t stay in one place longer than a month. There went her new chance, practically out the window, and she hadn’t even lasted a day.

  
  



	3. One of a Kind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! This chapter is a bit shorter, but I believe that it's going to be as satisfying as the last :) Thank you all for the comments and the kudos, they're very appreciated and it's really nice to know that some people actually like this story :)
> 
> Anyways, enjoy this chapter and I'll see you in the next one! - xo fantasycloud
> 
> PS, it's not so much Avalance content in this chapter, but in the next one...

“Aves, come on, let the girl eat before you interrogate her, hm?” Alex said and started pushing her to their table a couple of meters away. Alex looked back with an apologetic face before turning around and sat down herself beside Maggie at the table. Sara stood rooted by the cash register, having already paid for her food, but suddenly having lost all interest to eat it. 

“Sara,” A voice said from a whole other direction than Alex and the other’s, which made Sara lift her head and look over. Lena stood by a table close to her with her hands clasped in front her with a, what’s the word, sort of sad smile on her lips.

“The comments will stop,” she said and took a small step towards Sara. “As will the rumors. I promise,” she said and looked at her with careful eyes. Guarded, sort of.

“What do you know of it?” Sara asked, a little harder than she intended, but she stayed put.

“Because I used to  _ be  _ you,” she simply said and smiled. “I know that feeling,” she said when Sara made a face. “That feeling of being so alone, so out of place, that you automatically shield yourself from everyone and anything that gets even remotely close to you personally?”

Now Sara stared at her with big eyes, and unknowingly took a step towards Lena. She felt her lower lip tremble slightly, but she bit hard into her cheek.

“Come,” she said and nodded to a table at the far end of the cafeteria. “Come and sit with us instead, Ava can be a little intense. We’re an easier bunch who doesn’t really do well with strangers, so the only questions you’ll get is probably what your favorite color is,” she said with a laugh. When she saw Sara hesitating still, she let out a soft sigh and held out her hand.

“I’ve got your back, now come on,” she said and let Lena drag her when she had taken her hand. Sara looked behind her and tried to see if someone had heard their conversation, or what Ava had said before, but there were no strange looks cast her way, other than the ‘who’s the new girl’ looks, which she had been getting all morning. It wasn’t until then that she breathed out. She had no idea of how tense she was, and she couldn’t wait until gym class, which just so happened to be their next subject. 

Lena steered her to a table, a rather large table actually, were not only Kara, Felicity, Felicity, Cisco, Winn, and Caitlin, but also two new boys and a girl.

“Alright, Sara, you’ve already met most of us, but let me introduce you to Curtis, Barry, and Iris. We share most of our classes, but not English.” Lena sat down and gave Kara a peck on her lips, and patted the seat next to her. “Sit down, we won’t bite.” So Sara sat down and put her tray on the table. 

“What’s your next class?” Kara asked and leaned back behind Lena so that they could actually see each other. Lena just laughed and pulled out her chair a bit, so that they could sit normally. 

“Gym,” Sara told her and Kara’s face lit up.

“Oh, really? Me too, but no one in this crowd takes it.”

“Hey, hold up-” Winn said with an offended tone. “Excuse me, but I see no point in taking unnecessary courses that have no future value for me. But go ahead, if you want to stink sweat and feel dead, that’s fine with me,” he finished, but both Kara and Sara had both cracked up before his statement had ended.

“So Sara, any sport that you’re especially interested in?” Kara asked and put a piece of her food in her mouth. Sara nodded some and shrugged.

“Yeah, I’ve done most of them, soccer, dance, weight lifting, basketball, different kinds of martial arts, well, you get the idea,” she said and started eating her own lunch, which is why she missed the excited look Kara got on her face.

“Really? You’ve done all of those sports? Have you mastered any of them?” She asked with much interest in her voice.

“All,” Sara answered shortly and took another bite. “But really, it’s not that big of a deal, I just have a lot of spare time with nothing much else to do-”

“Are you serious? What do you mean it’s not a big deal? I’ve only been doing soccer, hockey, and dance, and I have a hard time mastering  _ them _ . I had to drop soccer because there wasn’t enough time on the clock.”

“Well,” Sara said and looked up to meet kara’s curious eyes. “Maybe I could come and practice with you sometime, you know, give you some pointers.”

“Really?”

“Sure, but only if I don’t drown in homework,” she said that earned a few laughs. “Well, if the teachers continue to expect so much of me, I  _ will  _ drown, for real!” She started to protest, but only more people laughed. And they didn’t stop laugh until even Sara had cracked a smile and even let out a snort.

“Okay, but Sara, why don’t you think about joining a school team?” Iris asked and leaned forward, and Sara was quick to notice that this girl wasn’t as shy as Sara had assumed that she’d be. “We do have some really awesome teams, and that could get you a scholarship,” she said importantly. But Sara only shook her head.

“It’s not really my thing,” she said but added hastily a “but I’ll check it out,” because Iris looked ready to ask the ‘why’ question and she didn’t really have the energy to come up with another lie to cover up the sob story behind it. That would have to wait, at least until they were better friends. They had actually just met this day.

“Alright,” Iris said, and then the ‘interrogation hour of Sara Lance’ seemed to stop because, everyone sort of fell into small conversations of themselves, which Sara took as a relief. She was beginning to feel something for these people, sure, but it was a bit much. She just hoped that gym hour was an hour of silence.

Boy, was she wrong.

In gym class, taught by a mister Henshaw, they began the session with laps, followed by sprints and then strengthening exercises, and that was just the warm-up. By the end of the hour, Sara was ever so grateful for all of the extra hours of exercising she had put in because even though she had a lot of them, she still suspected her body to be in pain the next day.

Luckily, she’d had Kara during the hour to suffer with, and Sara happily noticed that she was in about the same physical shape as she was. She also noticed that some of the girls that Alex had introduced to her also were there, but she only nodded ‘hey’ to them and continued to focus on her own work, occasionally stopping to talk with Kara once in a while. She didn’t want any questions about lunch. And Sara knew that avoiding a problem wasn’t great, but she seriously couldn’t care any less.

“Hey, Sara,” Kara said, a bit carefully Sara noted. “I don’t mean to pry,” she then said and it instantly began to knot in Sara’s stomach, because what good came after ‘ _ I don’t mean to pry _ ’?. “But Lena mentioned something to me today before class. She said that Ava had made a comment.” She made a face that Sara couldn’t quite place. Out of annoyance? Tiredness? Or maybe irritation? “And I just wanted to let you know that if you ever want to talk… About anything, you can come to us. Or, me and Lena, that is. In this school, not many people really  _ get  _ us.”

“I know that you’ve probably come to one of the best families there is around here, the Sharpe’s kids, well all but Ava, of course, have been through some sort of what you’re going through so you can always talk to them, but.” Kara took a breath and Sara was surprised to feel that she didn’t feel the urge of running away, yet. “I guess what I’m saying is, if you ever need someone to talk to outside of your family, I and Lena are here. If you want, no pressure,” she finished with a small smile before Kara gathered her things and shut them in her locker. 

Sara found herself at a loss of words. But she soon learned that an answer wouldn’t be necessary, because Kara walked away a moment later, leaving Sara with her own thoughts.

On her way to her next class, Sara found herself thinking about all of the unusual people she’d met this day. Winn, with whom she’d really felt a friendship form, as well as with Alex, Lena, and Kara, and Iris, who was like this over-enthusiastic reporterish person, Felicity who was the absolute opposite of that, no she was as quiet as you’d get, but it wasn’t off-putting in any way. And then there were many people in the background, Curtis, Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Maggie, Sam, Thea, Kendra. And finally, a person that still made Sara a bit on edge,  _ Ava _ . 

Seriously, that girl had no boundaries  _ whatsoever _ . Ugh. Just thinking about the dining hall incident made her tense up and look over her shoulder. It wasn’t just the way that she’d blurted out her backstory quite loudly to  _ everyone _ , a part of it was that she’d hated being reminded of that today. She’d already had a rough morning which had left her a bit tired and worn out if she was honest, and meeting all of these new people, coming here to this new school and having to be in classes all morning wasn’t the greatest mix, to begin with. But to then add that comment… It was just a bit too much, even for Sara. 

She just hoped that Ava wasn’t that bad all of the time, god if so, living with her would become a difficulty, or maybe more like a disaster. But the gym hadn’t failed her yet, maybe it would save her this time too, if necessary. She’d wanted to try out parkour, that was something that she had yet to try. But she reminded herself that she’d promised too many people to at least try here to quit even before she’d really started, so she shut up those thoughts and walked on into the next class. Algebra.

The rest of the day went on as the first part, she either sat with Winn, Lena or Alex, all three of them being extremely helpful as it turned out that in both algebra and biology, her teachers seemed to think that Sara was not only caught up on all of their teachings, but ahead of them all as well. That made her situation a little tricky at times when the teachers asked her questions about different theories or methods, but she was saved by her newfound friends. As the end of the day drew nearer, she became aware of how extremely grateful she was over having found them so soon. At her other school’s, it had taken her days, sometimes even weeks, before she’d even found  _ one _ . 

“Thanks guys, really,” Sara said for the fifth time that afternoon when they packed up after their biology class. “I had no idea about that last one,” she said with a laugh that didn’t quite sound right, but the three of them just smiled understandingly at her.

“Don’t worry, you’ll catch up. Mr. Wells usually keep his lessons tied to the book, so that one shouldn’t be too difficult to catch up on,” Winn said and punched her lightly on the arm. “Besides, if the headmaster has told all of the teachers how awesome you are, it must be something about you that has her telling them all of this. She wouldn’t go around talking about just anyone this way, you know. She’s usually very tight-lipped,” he said with a knowing smile and subtly walked away after that comment, leaving Sara who snorted at that remark.

“He’s right, you know,” Lena said with Kara nodding furiously behind her. “Gideon never really praises anyone personally if it’s not about someone having won a contest or a scholarship or something like that. You’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, okay,” Sara said, not at all convinced, but dropped it all the same.

She said bye to Lena and Kara at the door and walked by herself to the parking lot where she and Amaya had parked her car in the morning. As she stood by it and waited for Amaya to arrive, it occurred to her that they hadn’t actually decided on when to meet. Or if Sara even had a ride home with Amaya, when it came to it. Sara stood, and felt like a fool, for half an hour before giving up and walked back into the school. Why hadn’t she thought about this this morning?

She walked through the empty halls of the school and still marveled over of how light it was. And she continued being surprised about it until she realized that she had no idea of where she was going. Great. Awesome, yet another thing that she hadn’t thought about. She sighed and took a left turn and went down a flight of stairs and was faced with yet another corridor, but all of these doors had windows on them so you could see what everyone was doing from where Sara stood.

And she realized, she’d arrived at the place where all of the school clubs held place. From where Sara stood she could see the theater club, the school paper, the chess club, and so on. But it didn’t felt hidden away, as with most schools, just, maybe, gathered here? If that made sense.

She kept on walking slowly past the different doors, quickly enough not to seem lost but slowly enough to still be able to spot Amaya. And, she admitted, slowly enough to be able to see which of the clubs looked interesting. She hadn’t really been a part of any clubs since her life changed, she used to be in the acting club but she didn’t feel the need to be in it anymore. Perhaps that would change someday… 

When she passed the door with about ten different flags on it, she came to a stop. Amaya was sitting on a chair, slightly turned away from her, in a ring with about twenty other students. It might have been Sara’s eyes that deceived her, but it looked like all of the kids in there were from foreign countries. On the board behind them, it was a text saying ‘ _ Languages - What a Beautiful Knowledge! _ ’

Sara stood and watched the group for a minute or to, before continuing down the hall. She couldn’t stay there, just watching them, that would be creepy. Besides, she could ask Amaya about it later. Sara just thought that it was pretty cool, how this school was not only a much friendlier version of the ones she’d been too, but also it turns out a much more inclusive school. Not many schools, in her opinion, had a club that really brought all of the foreign students together to practise their language in. But, as she said, that was only her opinion. What did she know, there might have been one at every school and she just hadn’t looked for them.

When she had passed all of the doors, she sighed and walked back the way she came from, up the stairs and back to the car and sat down beside it.

“Hey!” Said a voice to the right of her. “What’re you doing there?”

Sara looked up and was met by a face she, shockingly, hadn’t seen during the day. He was clad in what she assumed was the school’s soccer outfit, and plus he had a soccer ball under his arm.

“Just waiting,” she said and brought up her arm to shield her eyes from the sun.

“Hm,” he said and stopped beside her. Sara sighed and stood up so that she wouldn’t seem like an idiot. 

“What are you doing?” She said with a light tone that she hoped masked her irritation, but judging by the smirk that popped up on the guys lips, it didn’t.

“I’m Oliver,” he said and paused. When Sara didn’t follow, he continued. “Tough crowd, okay. Let me start over. Hi, I’m Oliver Queen, and you must be Sara.”

“How did you know?” Sara asked puzzled but remembered that this wasn’t the largest school, so her coming here probably spread pretty fast.

“My girlfriend told me,” he said, deliberately not saying who she was which made Sara sigh again.

“And who’s that?” She said with a huff.

“Felicity, I believe that the two of you have met.”

At that, Sara’s jaw dropped. “Felicity? As in the very quiet girl I’ve been sitting next to, as the super smart girl who knows every answer? She’s dating  _ you _ ?”

“Ouch?” Oliver said with a laugh and leaned against the car. “Look, I’m pretty smart too, and it’s not all about the intelligence you know. We have great chemistry-”

“Mhm,” Sara said with a mocking tone and was pleased to see that Oliver had taken her bait for a change.

“And-” But he stopped. The smirk on Sara’s lips might have tipped him off. “Oh,” he said and laughed. “Now you’re just pulling my leg. Great. Hey,” he said when he’d stopped laughing. “Come with me to practice.”

Before Sara had even started shaking her head, he’d taken her hand and started to walk towards the stadium. “It’ll be great, I could introduce you to the team. I believe you already know Nate, and he also catches a ride with Amaya so you don’t have to worry about being late and missing your ride.”

“Yeah, look-” She started saying but he just shook his head.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

So she stopped fighting him, sighed for the tenth time and just followed suit. In any other normal school, people would just have ignored the new girl, left her to be lost, eat by herself and answering all of the teacher's questions. It was like this school was in its own universe. None of the rules seemed to have stuck here, and that was why she was being introduced to, what seemed like, the entire school on one day. Was it just her, or was it like this with everybody? She had to remember to ask Lena about it. Or Zari, or maybe Amaya. Gah, now she didn’t even know which of them to ask like everyone just seemed to have signed up for the ‘Sara Lance protection squad’ without Sara having even put up a ‘help wanted’ poster. She was grateful, but she hadn’t asked for it and it was beginning to be a little much.

But before Sara had time to have another mental breakdown, they reached the soccer field and Oliver waved the team over. All of them were friendly enough, and pretty loud and rough as well when the team finally made it out to the pitch Sara’s arms stung a bit from all of the ‘friendly’ slaps and her ears rang from of their ‘friendly’ greetings. Oliver had just laughed at this when he’d seen her face.

“When they’re out here, they don’t have to contain themselves. But relax, they’re nice. Well, Mick and Snart may be a little nasty sometimes, and Roy can get a bit rough on the field, but it’s usually just during a game. But they’re nice people. Did you by chance remember any of their names?”

Sara thought about it. “Well, yeah some of them, like James, John, Wally, and Clark, but that’s probably because they didn’t try to impress on me,” she said a bit humoristic. 

Oliver laughed at that. “Well, you’ve figured us out! We’re only nice when we’re trying to flirt,” he said and laughed harder. “Okay, maybe you’re right, but some of them were just friendly. Roy, for example, is dating my sister,” he said and paused to take a breath, which Sara was about to point out, but was stopped by a pained expression from Oliver sent her way. “Don’t,” he said with a suppressed smile before he let out a snort. “Okay, it’s just that, she’s my baby sis. And I don’t care that I’m just two years older, she’s still my baby sis.”

But Sara was laughing through much of this, so she didn’t focus much on the details.

“Okay, okay,” Oliver continued. “And the other’s, well, they were just hyped. Maybe Ramirez tried to make a move, but you should just ignore him, he does that to everyone.” Sara snorted and raised an eyebrow.

“But what if I liked him the most?”

That made Oliver laugh even more. “And that’s why you remembered his name  _ so  _ clearly?” Sara laughed at that.

A whistle from one of Oliver’s team was heard and when they looked back, all of them was waving for him to come back. Some also pointed back to the side, and when they followed their direction Sara could see, or who she assumed was, their coach because Oliver started jogging backward.

“We’re just doing drills today, but stay! You’ll maybe even find it interesting!” He shouted back and then turned around and jogged back to the team.

And Sara sat down on the bleachers, pretty content with where she was. She was a bit proud of herself, to be honest. Before when boys had tried dragging her to the field, she had just easily removed her arm from their grip and walked away. But there was something about Oliver, she could see why Felicity was with him. He was easy to be around, and he didn’t try and pry, like almost everyone else. Sara didn’t see him  _ that  _ way, but she could easily see herself being friends with him. 

Watching them practice had her forgetting about almost everything else. It wasn’t until the practice ended and Nate waving to Sara to come and join him when she remembered that she would now go ‘home’, or back to the Sharpe’s, and possibly meeting Ava again. She hadn’t seen her since the cafeteria incident. Sara just hoped that they would have a better start at their house, and added the wish of Ava not being so… Well, the simple word would be irritating. But that wasn’t quite right either. Maybe Ava just was one of those people that got on her nerves. But that would be a problem, seeing as she now lived with her. Sara sighed. This was going to be a long road if those thoughts about her were circulating in her mind.

  
  



End file.
